Greg :
The ability for you to be grateful in all things. It's one of the greatest things that you can do. It takes away your worry, it takes away anxiety, it takes away fear when you are in a state of gratitude and in a spirit of just being grateful. So this is Secrets for Success. Welcome to the Secrets For Success Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Tod. Thank you for joining me. This is a special episode.
Greg :
This is a Thanksgiving episode. And want to tell you guys, Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays because I think Thanksgiving brings out one of the greatest emotions, it brings out one of the greatest attributes for most of us that celebrate the holiday, and that is gratitude and giving thanks. And so I love Thanksgiving. I love it. And it's not to be a glutton with food or to sit down and watch football, which is awesome, and it's nice, but it really is more about us just taking a step back and reflecting on all the things that we can give thanks for. And so I want to use this episode to remind you and encourage you that no matter what is going on in your life, to exercise that quality and the ability for you to be grateful in all things is one of the greatest things that you can do. It takes away your worry, it takes away anxiety, it takes away fear when you are in a state of gratitude and in a spirit of just being grateful. So that's what I want to do.
Greg :
I want to use this time to say some of the things that I'm grateful for. But I want this to be a podcast that as I'm saying something, I want you to pause the podcast and then I want you to think about something and I want you to say it. So I'm going to say number one. Then I'll say number two. And I don't know how long I'm going to go with this, but every single time I finish and when I go to the next one, I want you to pause the podcast and I want you to say something that you are thankful for as well. So let's start with number one. Number one, I am thankful. I'm thankful for my relationship with Jesus Christ.
Greg :
I'm so thankful that no matter what is going on in my life, whether it's with family, it's with friends, it's with work, it's with my body, I can always lean on Scripture. I can always lean on God. I can always lean on the word of God to give me comfort when I am not feeling comfort within my own faculties. I am thankful that I have someone that I can lean on in all circumstances. And I'm just thankful. I'm thankful for my relationship with my Creator. And I realize that I have the ability to get closer and closer to my Creator every single day. And there are days that I take that and I accept it and I do things to get in the word of God.
Greg :
And there are days that I don't, and I realize that that's totally on me. But I'm just so thankful that as many things change that never changes is my relationship and the fact that God is there for me through all times and through all things. So I'm thankful for that. That's number one. Number two is I am thankful for specifically my wife, and I'm thankful for my children as well. But the thing that I'm so thankful for with my wife is that being an entrepreneur, there are times where I have massive highs and there are times where I have massive lows. And besides God, the one person that has been the most steadfast individual by my side over the last 22 years of us being married, 27 years of us being together, has been Kwanata. And if you guys have followed my stuff, you know that she's the anti entrepreneur and she really just wants my time.
Greg :
But without her demanding more time with her best friend, which happens to be me, there was no reason for me to choose entrepreneurship. I'm not the typical entrepreneur. I chose this path so I can get more time. There was a lot of work that was involved. There was a lot of time invested, money invested, blood, sweat and tears invested to today. Now I'm starting to reap some of the fruits of that labor and get a lot of my time back. But I'm thankful that she's pushed me. I'm thankful that she's supporting me.
Greg :
And I'm thankful that as I go through the ups and downs that she is always steadfast. I have great, amazing days, and we're impacting so many people and making lots of money. She's the same. I have days that I'm low. She's the same. And she's always supporting me, always encouraging me, and always keeping me on track with the things that she knows that I need to keep as priority. So I'm so thankful for her. Number three is my kids.
Greg :
I want to hit them up as well. I'm very thankful for the fact that I have four children and I have a really solid relationship with all four of my kids. It's so funny. I was actually talking about this this morning with one of my friends that I went on a walk with. And I was telling him that when I was a young parent, a young father, there was a coworker of mine who used to tell me what was going to happen to my kids as they got older. Because this person had a child that was about six, seven years older than my oldest child at the time, who was like, three years old. And she would say, wait until Adriana gets to be six. Oh my gosh, you're going to see this happen.
Greg :
And then when she became six, she's like, oh, wait until she gets nine. Oh, she's going to start acting out and want boyfriends and what. Just all this stuff that this person would put in my head about what my kids were going to become, because she was projecting onto me what her kid did, and pretty much none of those things happen. Now, I'm not trying to say my kids are perfect. They've got their issues just like their daddy. We all got our issues. But what I am very thankful for is I'm thankful that I have a 20 year old, got an 18 year old, I got a 14 year old, and I got a ten year old. And those kids love to spend time with their father.
Greg :
I love to spend time with them. They are extremely close to me, and I'm just so grateful for that. I understand that that's not a sign of just our parenting. That's just like I don't know. I just feel very grateful because I know that that doesn't have to be the case. I just feel extremely grateful and thankful for my kids. That's number three. Number four, I'm grateful for my extended family.
Greg :
It's my parents. I'm grateful that I've not always had a very strong relationship with my older brother, and today I have a very strong relationship with him. He's probably one of my strongest business. We've used entrepreneurship to actually get closer and get connected. My younger brother and I have been really great friends. He's almost like my best friend. He was the best man at my wedding. I'm just really grateful and thankful for my extended family as well.
Greg :
I actually like my mother in law. I love my father in law. So I just feel extremely grateful that for the first four things that I've talked about, from my God to my wife, my kids, and my extended family, I'm really grateful that I have a very strong inner circle, and I'm really thankful for that. I'm going to say a few more. Okay, number five is I am grateful for you all. I'm grateful for every single one of you that listen to this podcast. I'm grateful for the fact that you are giving me your attention, that you entrust me to give you some type of direction. I don't know if it's business.
Greg :
I'm not sure if you're looking at me for Merrill advice. I don't know. But this is called the Secrets for Success podcast, and I'm trying to impart on you the things that I've been able to do over the last 1819 years of being an entrepreneur and my body of work and all the mistakes that I've made, all the things that I realize it takes to actually win. And I know you can get that from many other people, and you've chosen to listen to me today, and I don't take that for granted. I'm so grateful and so thankful for your attention, and I want to take it a step further. There are some of you. All of you are at least give me your attention. But there are some of you that have actually said, I'm going to exchange money with you in terms for more value from you.
Greg :
And I am extremely grateful for that. This year has been my biggest year of gaining new customers into my programs. I believe that we are over 400 new customers this year in my coaching programs. We have a lot more services now, but I don't want to take that for granted. That is just absolutely amazing, especially during times like this where things are so hard and difficult. I'm just so thankful that you guys entrust me, and I hope to continue to build that trust. And please understand this. I'm going to continue to do whatever I can within my boundaries to give you all the best service that I possibly can.
Greg :
So I'm just so thankful for every single one of you. I really am. Number six. I think I'm at number six. I'm thankful for Smart Success Healthcare, the team here, from our client relations to you know what here, I'll just mention everybody. Oh, man, I know I'm going to screw this up, but I'm thankful for Jake. I'm thankful for Andrew Tran. I'm thankful for Brittany.
Greg :
I'm thankful for Jordan. I'm thankful for Justin, who they've both taken my media game to another level. I'm thankful for Kevin and what he's been able to help my clients do in tech. I'm thankful for Andres. I'm thankful for I'm missing somebody. I'm screwing this up. But I'm thankful for all of our virtual tech team. We have five people that work off site.
Greg :
I'm thankful for Ben Blackman, who has taken my advertising game to another level. I'm thankful for even the people that are no longer here with us that were a huge part of helping me build up to this level. And I'm extremely thankful for all of them. I'm thankful for Amber, who takes care of all the stuff I don't want to do with HR and all that other stuff. I'm just thankful for all the people that make Smart Success Healthcare work and make it operate and have allowed me to bring additional services to my clients that I wasn't able to bring in previous years. I think that's number six. I think so. Okay.
Greg :
Number seven is, I'm thankful for all the lessons. This year has been the biggest year that we've had with adding more customers, adding more revenue, adding more offerings. But this has also been probably the most painful and trying time that I've ever had in business. I grew this particular mission. I grew this to seven times the amount of staff than what I had in the beginning of 2023. And I've scaled that back to where now it's like four or five times the amount of staff. But I've learned so many lessons, so many things, and while you're learning it, you're like, oh, my god, it was so painful. But I've just learned so much things about me, about what it is that I want, about what my boundaries are about, just so many different things, you guys.
Greg :
And so I'm just feeling so thankful. I'm feeling so grateful of all the things, the good, the bad, the ugly. And yeah, I just feel extremely grateful. So with that said, I hope that you all use this time to reflect and to reflect on all the things that this year has brought you so far. I know the year is not done, but I do think that Thanksgiving season is really a great time to not only give thanks and display gratitude, but it's also a great time for us to be able to reflect on all the blessings that God has put in our life and also to pause, to pause. And I personally don't like to prep for my business after Christmas. I like to start prepping from now. And the only way I'm going to prep for the next year for 2024 is by reflecting so far on what has happened in 2023.
Greg :
And that's what I use this time for. So I know for me, I'm going to enjoy the day with my family. I'm going to eat the stuffing, I'm going to enjoy the chicken and the turkey. I'm going to do all that stuff. But then for the rest of the weekend, what I'm going to do is I'm going to reflect. I'm going to reflect on the good, the bad. I'm going to probably listen to this podcast again and then start to strategize on how I want to finish out the year time that I want for a little bit of rest, but also things that I want to push for as well for the remainder of the year and what I want to do as I go into 2024. And I'm advising you to do the same.
Greg :
So as I kind of conclude, I just want to say I'm thankful for all of you. I think you all should do that for yourself as well. I think you should really look back at what things you're thankful for, and you'll probably even think of certain things that earlier this year you're like, oh my gosh, that was like the worst thing ever. And probably now you're like, I'm thankful that I went through that because these are the lessons that I learned. And the only way you can do that is if you actually have time to pause and reflect and do what we just did together. So with that said, I just want to tell you guys I love you guys. I'm thankful full for every single one of you. I'm thankful that you give me your attention, and I look forward to hearing from you on the next episode.
Greg :
Till next time.
